Dang Near Dead (An Aggie Mundeen Mystery Book 2) (9 page)

Eighteen

We froze and listened—then sprinted toward the cries.

We reached the horse trail. Vicki lay on the ground unconscious. Her horse stood near her, spread-legged, with its ears pinned back, snorting as though daring anybody to approach. Its reins lay on the ground.

Selma wailed and shot furious looks at George.

He gaped at Vicki, seemingly paralyzed.

Selma’s screams drew the others. Sunny rushed in and ran toward Vicki. He waved his arms at the gelding until the horse reared, whirled and galloped away. He knelt beside Vicki, touched her forehead and yelled for somebody to call 911.

Moving closer, I saw blood on Vicki’s hair and on a nearby rock. Stoney and Millie ran up. Jangles and Ranger trotted up together. The bulk of her curls had escaped the rubber band and flopped like springs down the sides of her head. Her tent dress was turned quarter way around. Ranger wore most of her lipstick.

Monty loped up close behind Jangles and Ranger. When River Rat bounded up, he sank to his knees beside his sister. His hair hung forward, so I couldn’t see his face. Wayne Rickoff stomped in, completing the circle, and stared down at Vicki.

Bertha pushed her way through the crowd. “Oh, my God.” She fell to her knees beside Rat and Sunny, whipped a cell phone from her pocket, dialed 911 and pressed speaker phone. She laid the phone on the ground and leaned over her young assistant.

“Bandera Emergency,” a voice answered.

“This is Bertha Sampson,” she shouted, “at the BVSBar Ranch. We have a girl on the ground unconscious. Looks like her horse threw her. She’s breathing.” Bertha panted.

“What’s your location on the ranch?”

“Go up the main entrance toward the lodge and cut left before you get to the building. Head for the river. There’s a sign. The horse trail is by the river.”

“We’ll have San Antonio Air Life launch a helicopter to get the victim to the trauma center. Do you have a landing site?”

Bertha never took her eyes off Vicki. “Closest field is behind cabins three and four—southwest from where we are.”

“We’re dispatching EMS and the fire department. Direct the fire truck to the open field. They’ll call in coordinates and prepare the landing site for Air Life. Sheriff Deputy Cranton is on the way.”

Less than a half hour before, Vicki had been eating dinner on the patio. Fresh. Young. Her whole life ahead of her.

Within minutes, a deputy, Cranton, I presumed, pulled his car up as close as he could get to the horse trail, jumped out and came leaping toward us through the brush.

“Don’t anybody move her.”

We heard the EMS siren squealing up the main road. The van’s headlights lit up the lodge and swung left toward us. When the van screeched to a stop, a group of EMTs loaded with gear and a stretcher bounded toward us. The fire truck pulled up behind the van.

“Get back. Get back.” The emergency team swarmed Vicki. One technician put an oxygen mask on her face. Another took her vital signs. “Low pressure. Thready pulse.”

Bertha scrambled toward the fire truck to give the driver directions to the landing field.

Sam, standing beside me, spoke in low tones. “Vicki doesn’t look good. She might have a serious head injury.”

A sob escaped me. I felt faint. He grabbed my arm to steady me. Meredith grabbed his other arm. One technician placed a cervical collar around Vicki’s neck. Two others took positions behind her waist and knees and rolled her slowly on to her side, then carefully back onto the board.

“They’re doing a ‘log roll’ to check her back for injuries,” Sam said, “stabilizing and protecting her head and spine to get her ready to transport.”

As they lifted her stretcher into the EMS van, I thought I heard her moan. It was the best sound I’d ever heard.

I saw Deputy Cranton don a sterile glove and pick up a blood-spattered rock from the area where Vicki fell and put it in a Ziploc bag.

“We need information about the girl. Who knows her?” the medical technician said.

Bertha walked toward him. I slipped closer. The technician asked Bertha for Vicki’s full name, parents’ names and contact information and whether she knew Vicki’s medical history.

Bertha repeated the names of Vicki and her parents. “I can’t remember the other things,” she said, “but I can fax you Vicki’s employment application with medical records.” The technician gave her his card.

“We’ll get her as close as possible to the copter and help load her,” he said.

The medical team was doing everything they could, but I was glad Vicki couldn’t hear them. She’d be terrified.

“Where will they take her?” I asked Sam. I wondered if Meredith felt as woozy as I did. Hearing particulars might help me remain conscious.

“San Antonio University Hospital,” Sam said. “It’s the closest trauma center. The first hour after an injury is the most critical. Doctors will be evaluating her well within that time frame.”

I prayed for Vicki, the young, confused girl with so much life ahead of her. The EMS van rolled back on to the main road and headed toward the field with poor Vicki jostling inside.

We saw the helicopter in the sky and ran down the horse trail to watch it land in the field. Deputy Cranton ran with us. Lightning framed the copter’s blades as they scattered brush and dirt. We walked as close as we could to the aircraft. EMTs slid Vicki’s stretcher from the ambulance, carried it to the helicopter and eased her inside.

“What will they do at the hospital?” I asked Sam. I wished I could be with Vicki, holding her hand. Someone should be with her. I glanced at River Rat. He stared at the helicopter, evidently not inclined to reveal his identity and ask to go with his sister.

“They’ll do blood work,” Sam said, “head and body scans, monitor her vital signs, help her breathe, put EKG leads on her chest to monitor her heart.”

Stunned, we watched the helicopter rise into the sky amid rumbling thunder. Sporadic lightning flashed near the copter’s blades. I held my breath until the helicopter disappeared. The ambulance pulled away.

Deputy Cranton said, “So the girl’s horse threw her? Did anybody see what made the horse pitch?”

Everybody shook their heads.

“Who was last to see her before this happened?” Nobody moved or spoke. Lightning crackled across the sky. I hoped Vicki’s copter pilot wasn’t flying through bolts.

“I’d like to see you all in the dining hall,” Cranton said.

A thunder crash propelled us toward the lodge. Droplets of rain began to fall. As we hustled to the building, Meredith and I shot an inquisitive glance at Sam. He touched a finger to his lips.

“Okay,” I said.

“Right.” Meredith nodded.

Judging from the determined set of his jaw, I thought he’d decided to stay undercover and investigate why Vicki fell. But I had to make sure. While everybody scrambled toward the lodge, I whispered in his ear. “You’re going to stay incognito to find out what happened to Vicki?”

He nodded. Determination oozed from him. I shared it. We couldn’t possibly leave.

Ranger overtook us and loped past. “That dang horse Vicki rides spooks at noises. ‘Specially in stormy weather.”

Nineteen

The entire group of us crammed ourselves through the front door of the lodge.

“I need your names and contact information,” the deputy said. “Tell me when you last saw Vicki Landsdale and anything else you know about her. Line up here, please.”

My feet started itching. “Let’s be near the front of the line,” I whispered to Meredith. “Then we can go back to the trail and search around.”

“Are you crazy? That’s the deputy’s job. Besides, it’s about to storm.”

“We need to comb the area before it starts pouring and the rain washes everything away.”

“Washes what away? I’m not even going to tell Sam you said that.”

I was thankful she wouldn’t tell Sam, but Vicki’s injuries felt personal. She’d become a friend. I had to help her. Not even her brother would come forward. Even if nobody else cared about her, I did. How could I abandon her? Guilt would overwhelm me. I knew. I’d done it before—abandoned people closer to me than Vicki. I’d never do it again.

It looked as though Sam and I were never going to have ordinary time together without a tragedy occurring in our midst. We could never have a relationship without some emergency forcing us together. The whole idea Sam and I could ever be close was a silly figment of my imagination.

But there was no way we could leave the ranch. Somebody who didn’t like Vicki might have caused her fall. If I found something significant where the horse threw her, I’d tell Sam. He had the expertise to evaluate the information. If he grew angry, I’d be satisfied knowing I’d done the right thing. I’d developed my own sense of duty.

Meredith and I were near the front of the line and among the first to be interviewed. It didn’t take us long to tell the deputy that Vicki had left dinner early. I didn’t tell him Wayne Rickoff and the Tensels left soon after she did, nor did I mention her troubles with other cowboys and her brother. I had to believe she’d recover and could tell the deputy herself. Meredith and I moved aside so he could question the others.

My curiosity bubbled to the surface. I had an idea. I saw a chance to make a discovery before trekking back to the horse trail.

“Meredith, after the sheriff finishes questioning each person, why don’t you slip over and charm that person into telling you where they were between dinner and Selma’s screams? Bat your eyes. Say you’re terribly interested in their experience for an article.”

“Are you determined to get us into this? Are you actually going back to that trail?”

“Okay, okay. I shouldn’t go back. Here come Ranger and Monty. Just smile and find out where they went after dinner.” I turned her around and practically pushed her in front of the two men.

Before she could protest, I scurried toward the door, slipped outside the lodge and headed for the corrals.

Twenty

On a list of people who didn’t like Vicki, Ranger (when she ignored his flirting) and Monty would be near the top. While Meredith chatted with those two in the lodge, maybe I could find something at the corrals to tie them to Vicki’s fall.

The sky was menacing, but at least rain wasn’t pouring yet. I jogged at a pretty good clip but slowed down when I neared the enclosure. The horses milled around, spooky from the weather. Lightning cracked. The horses stiffened and laid back their ears. When thunder rumbled, they blew air out of their nostrils and whirled aimlessly in half circles.

I neared the corral, talking in soothing tones like the wranglers did. My utterances seemed to work. The horses grew still, studied me and puffed. I didn’t relish sharing space with the skittish creatures, but I saw a shiny object lying in the dirt in front of the horses.

Talking steadily in reassuring tones, I eased through the corral gate. At first, the horses stood their ground. Then they tossed their heads and backed up. When I bent to retrieve the shiny item, one horse snorted and whipped around, placing his backside toward me. It was Marbach, the horse Monty said kicked at noises behind him. Praying his flying hooves couldn’t reach me, I snatched up the item and skedaddled backward toward the gate.

Another horse pranced in my direction, whinnying and showing her teeth. I thought she wanted to take a piece out of my arm. I spun and sprinted for the gate. Just before I squeezed through, her teeth caught my billowing skirt. I shoved the gate closed and whirled around. Fabric from my sundress hung from the horse’s lips.

If I hadn’t been working out, she’d have chomped my derriere. I reached back and felt a hole in my skirt.

Still panting, I opened my palm to see what I’d retrieved from the corral: a piece of wire about two inches long. Ranger’s sculpture wire? I dropped it into my pocket, inhaled a liter of air and began trotting back toward the lodge. The air felt like soup. Droplets fell intermittently.

When I spotted Deputy Cranton ambling toward his patrol car, I slipped behind a tree. I didn’t want him wondering what I was doing outside in inclement weather with my poison ivy patch exposed through a ripped skirt.

Once his car pulled out of sight, I scurried to the lodge and stopped to take a breath before I entered. Holding my shoulders back, I surreptitiously pulled my skirt closed behind me as I slipped into the lodge. Everybody in the dining room sat quietly with somber faces.

I walked to the bench were Sam and Meredith sat. Sam looked up at me and raised his eyebrows.

“I needed to get some air and snagged my dress on a bush.”

Meredith gave me a disgusted look. She knew I’d been sneaking around somewhere, but she apparently hadn’t told Sam. I eased my tailbone onto the bench.

Bertha was giving a pep talk about why everyone should stay and enjoy the ranch despite the accident. Until that moment, I didn’t know she was capable of such charm.

“Vicki’s going to be all right,” she said. “And don’t worry about her horse. Nobody but the wranglers will be allowed to ride it. Tonight’s rain will make the weather cooler tomorrow. It’ll be the most perfect Hill Country day you ever saw.” She floated down to her chair, smiling.

Sam whispered under his breath, “She’s desperate to keep everybody happy. She has a lot at stake here.”

George Tensel stood. “I think we should all go home. What happened here tonight is a bad omen.” He’d never looked to me like a man concerned with omens.

Bertha jumped up. “Y’all paid up front for an authentic ranch holiday. I want you to enjoy it.” She smiled. “Besides, I don’t give refunds.”

George sat.

“It’s too late to decide anything tonight,” Bertha purred. “Why don’t we all go to bed, listen to the soothin’ rain when it comes, get a good night’s sleep and meet here for Maria’s scrumptious breakfast in the morning.”

We were too tired to protest. Nobody had the energy to pack up and strike out in the dead of night with a storm brewing.

Bertha’s plan sounded superb to me. With everyone staying at the ranch, the usual routine would continue, and I’d have more time to casually nose around.